James Madison Cutts, Jr.

(1837 - 1903)
Home State: District Of Columbia
Command Billet: Aide de Camp
Branch of Service: Staff
Unit: Ninth (IX) Army Corps

Before the Antietam Campaign:
Cutts served for about 6 weeks in mid-1861 as Private in the 1st Rhode Island Volunteers, and then accepted an appointment as Captain in the new 11th United States Infantry on 14 May 1861.

In the Antietam Campaign:
He was Aide de Camp on General Burnside's staff in Maryland.

The remainder of the War:
He was courtmartialled in June 1863, and convicted of un-gentlemanly behavior. The President upheld his conviction, but reduced his punishment to a reprimand, and Cutts retained his commission. In 1891 he was awarded the Medal of Honor for “gallantry in action” during 1864 at the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and Petersburg. In March 1865 he was awarded brevets–honorary rank–to Major and Lieutenant Colonel for his combat service.

After the War:
He continued in Regular Army service until 1868, when he was again in trouble for misbehavior and dismissed from the Service. He was later a successful lawyer in Washington, DC.

References, Sources, and other notes:
Service dates and other information from Heitman1. His position of the General's staff at Antietam from Burnside's after-action Report.

More on the Web:
See a post about him over on the blog behindAotW.

Place of Birth: Washington, DC
Death Date: 02/24/1903 Death Place: Washington, DC Burial Place: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA

Notes

1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 349 [AotW citation 10643]

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